This application incorporates by reference Taiwan application Serial No.090130843, filed Dec. 12, 2001.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to an adjusting device, and more particularly to an adjusting device including a foot member, a supporting member, and a moving member.
2. Description of the Related Art
When equipping a projector on a desk, the user can make use of the adjusting foot or the adjusting device to adjust the angle of elevation so that the projector can cast images on the designated screen.
Referring to FIG. 1, a projector 100 on a projection plate 101 is shown, wherein a fixed foot 106 is under and coupled to the base-board 102c at the end near the rear-board 102b of the housing. At the other end of the base-board 102c, near the front-board 102a, there is an adjusting foot 108. The adjusting foot 108 is installed inside a fillister 109 of the housing 102 with a portion of the adjusting foot 108 exposed. The upward and downward movement of the front side of the projector 100 is controlled by the adjusting foot 108.
In addition, the adjusting foot 108 includes the supporting member 110, the turning member 112, and the spiral member 114. The adjusting foot 108 supported by the supporting member 110 is against the projection plate 101. The turning member 112 is installed on the top of the supporting member 110, which provides the function of rotating. The supporting member 110, the turning member 112, and the spiral member 114 are coupled and thus, the rotation of the turning members 112 leads the rotation of the other two members in the same direction. As the thread 114a of the spiral member 114 and the thread 109a of the edge of the fillister 109 are in mesh, the spiral member 114 and the fillister 109 are mounted properly. Therefore, by rotating the turning member 112, the elevation angle of the projector 100 can be adjusted.
A portion of the weight of the projector 100 is imposed on the supporting member 110, so that a frictional force is generated between the supporting member 110 and the projection plate 101. Therefore, to rotate the adjusting foot 108 efficiently, the user must exert a force great enough to overcome the frictional force, which can be very laborious. Additionally, it is quite inconvenient for the user who must spend much time to adjust the projector 100 to the required angle because the adjustment range is very limited. The user may need to rotate the adjusting foot 108 several times so as to adjust the angle of the projector 100 slightly upward or downward.
Referring to FIG. 2, it shows an adjusting device comprising a locking part, springs, and a leg part, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication number 11-271879. As shown in FIG. 2, a fixed foot 206 is under the base-board 202c coupled to the rear-board 202b of the housing 202. At the other side of the base board 202c near the front-board 202a, there is a projector device 208. The projector 200 is installed stably on the projection plate 201 by the support of the fixed foot 206 and the projector device 208.
The projector device 208 is provided with a leg part height adjusting mechanism comprising the leg part 212, a spring 214b, and a locking part 210, wherein the leg part 212 is freely and vertically movable from the inside to the outside of a hole part 216b formed in the housing 202 base plate 202c of the projector device. The spring 214b is for pushing the leg part 212 downward, and the locking part 210 is for locking the leg part 212 pushed down by the spring 214b at a desired level. Thus, by operating the locking part 210, the height of the leg part 212 is set so that the projector device can be positioned at the desired level.
The shortcoming and deficiency of the conventional adjusting mechanism lie in the inconvenience of the operating procedure to adjust the angle of elevation of the projector 200. When adjusting the angle of the projector 200 on the projection plate 201, the user must support the projector 200 with one hand and pull the locking part 210 to the left with the other hand to separate the moving part 210b off the sawtooth part 212a. And the elasticity of the spring 214b will force the leg part 212 to move outside of the hole part 216b; meanwhile the user adjusts the projector 200 upward or downward to the required angle with a certain length of the leg part 212 exposed outside of the hole part 216b, and by then the user can set free the locking part 210 so that the moving part 210b and the sawtooth part 212a will mesh again.
The present invention overcomes the shortcoming and deficiency mentioned above by providing an adjusting device, having a well-designed supporting member and moving member, so that the user can easily adjust the position of the moving member connected with the supporting member.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an adjusting device comprising a foot member, a supporting member, and a moving member. The supporting member is fixed to the foot member, and the moving member includes a moving body, a supporting body and a button. Furthermore, the moving body includes two passageways. One passageway is sized to receive the supporting member so that the moving body can move vertically and is coupled to the supporting member. The other passageway is sized to receive an elastic device so that the elasticity of the elastic device embeds in the passageway horizontally to clip to the supporting member so that the moving body is fixed to the supporting member. The button is movable and buckled to the moving body. When an impetus is given to the button, the button moves to collide against the elastic device so that the elastic device becomes deformed and departs from the supporting member, and then the user can shift the moving member vertically to adjust the position of the moving member connected with the supporting member.
On the basis of the adjusting device of the type mentioned above, the object of the invention is achieved by having an adjusting device installed in a supporting base, comprising the supporting member and the moving member. The supporting member has tooth-ditched outlets slanting upward at both sides. The moving member further includes the moving body, the U-clip of the elastic device, and the button, wherein the moving body can slide and is coupled to the supporting member, the U-clip has two clip parts and is fixed to the moving body, so that the two clip parts of the U-clip can catch the tooth-ditched outlets of the supporting member so that the moving body is fixed to the supporting member as the U-clip does not become deformed, and the button is installed in the moving body with mobile function, which enables the relative movement of the moving member and the supporting member by pressing the button to deform the U-clip and release the U-clip from the tooth-ditched outlets.
Other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred but non-limiting embodiments. The following description is made with reference to the accompanying drawings.